INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

[1]

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Man's Three Aspects

[3]

In the study of the ideas
outlined in this book and their careful consideration certain basic concepts
are borne in mind:

First, that the matter of
prime importance to each student is not the fact of a particular teacher's
personality but the measure of truth for which he stands, and the student's
power to discriminate between truth, partial truth, and falsity.

Second, that with increased
esoteric teaching comes increased exoteric responsibility. Let each student
with clarity therefore take stock of himself, remembering that understanding
comes through application of the measure of truth grasped to the immediate
problem and environment, and that the consciousness expands through use of the
truth imparted.

Third, that a dynamic
adherence to the chosen path and a steady perseverance that overcomes and
remains unmoved by aught that may eventuate, is a prime requisite and leads to
the portal admitting to a kingdom, a dimension and a state of being which is
inwardly or subjectively known. It is this state of realisation which produces
changes in form and environment commensurate with its power.

These three suggestions will
merit a close consideration by all, and their significance must be somewhat
grasped before further real progress is possible. It is not my function to
make individual and personal application of the teaching given. That must be
done by each student for himself.

You have wisely guarded the
teaching from the taint of superimposed authority, and there lies back of your [4]books
no esoteric principle of hierarchical authority or support, such as has
produced the narrow limits of certain ecclesiastical bodies and groups,
differing as widely as the Catholic Church, Christian Science, those who
believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, and numerous (so-called)
esoteric organisations. The curse of many groups has been the whispered word
that "Those who know wish...." "The Master says...."
"The Great Ones command..." and the group of silly sheep feebly and
blindly tumble over themselves to obey. They think thereby, through their
misplaced devotion, to contact certain authoritative personages, and to get
into heaven by some short cut.

You have wisely guarded your
books from the reaction accorded to those who claim to be masters, adepts and
initiates. My anonymity and status must be preserved, and my rank be regarded
as only that of a senior student and of an aspirant to that expansion of
consciousness which is for me the next step forward. What I say of truth alone
is of moment; the inspiration and help I can accord to any pilgrim on the path
is alone vital; that which I have learned through experience is at the disposal
of the earnest aspirant; and the wideness of the vision which I can impart
(owing to my having climbed higher up the mountain than some) is my main
contribution. Upon these points the students are at liberty to ponder,
omitting idle speculation as to the exact details of unimportant personalities,
and environing conditions.

Our theme is to be that of
the Magic of the Soul, and the key thought, underlying all that may appear in
this book, is to be found in the words of the Bhagavad Gita which runs
as follows:

"Though I am Unborn, the
Soul that passes not away, though I am the Lord of Beings, yet as Lord over My
nature I become manifest, through the magical power of the Soul." Gita
IV.6.

[5]

The statistical and the
academic is a necessary basis and a preliminary step for most scientific study,
but in this book we will centre our attention on the life aspect, and the
practical application of truth to the daily life of the aspirant. Let us study
how we can become practical magicians, and in what way we can best live the
life of a spiritual man, and of an aspirant to accepted discipleship in our own
peculiar times, state and environment.

To do this we will take the
Fifteen Rules for Magic to be found in my earlier book, entitled A Treatise
on Cosmic Fire. I will comment on them, dealing not with their cosmic
significance or with solar and other correspondences and analogies, but
applying them to the work of the aspirant, and giving practical suggestions for
the better development of soul contact and soul manifestation. I shall take
for granted certain knowledges and assume the students can follow and
comprehend certain technical terms that I may be led to use. I am not dealing
with babes but with matured men and women who have chosen a certain way and who
are pledged to "walk in the light."

I seek in this book to do
four things, and to make appeal to three types of people. It is based, as
regards its teaching, upon four fundamental postulates. These are intended to:

1. Teach the laws of
spiritual psychology as distinguished from mental and emotional psychology.

2. Make clear the nature of
the soul of man and its systemic and cosmic relationships. This will include
its group relationship as a preliminary step.

3. Demonstrate the relations
between the self and the sheaths which that self may use, and thus clarify
public thought as to the constitution of man.

4. Elucidate the problem of
the supernormal powers, [6]and give the rules for their safe and useful
development.

We stand now towards the close
of a great transition period and the subtler realms of life are closer than
ever before; unusual phenomena and inexplicable happenings are commoner than at
any time heretofore, whilst matters telepathic, psychic, and peculiar occupy
the attention even of sceptics, scientists, and religionists. Reasons for the
appearance of phenomena are being everywhere sought, and societies are formed
for their investigation and demonstration. Many are likewise going astray in
the effort to induce in themselves psychic conditions and the energy-producing
factors which give rise to the manifestation of peculiar powers. This book
will endeavor to fit the information given into the scheme of life as we today
recognize it and will show how basically natural and true is all that is termed
mysterious. All is under law, and the laws need elucidation now that man's
development has reached the stage of a juster appreciation of their beauty and
reality.

Three types of people will
respond to this book. They are:

1. Those open minded
investigators who are willing to accept its fundamentals as a working
hypothesis until these are demonstrated to be erroneous. They will be frankly
agnostic, but willing temporarily, in their search for truth, to try out the
methods and follow the suggestions laid down for their consideration.

2. Aspirants and disciples.
They will study this treatise in order to understand themselves better and
because they seek to help their brother man. They will not accept its dicta
blindly but will experiment, check and corroborate with care the stages [7]and
steps laid down for them in this section of the teachings of the Ageless
Wisdom.

3. Initiates. These
persons will arrive at a meaning which will not be apparent to those in the
first group and which will only be suspected by the more advanced members of
the second. Within themselves they know the truth of many of its statements
and will realise the subjective working out of many of the laws. These laws of
nature have effects in three distinct realms:

a. Physically, where they demonstrate as effects in the
dense form.

b. Etherically, where they demonstrate as the energy
lying back of those effects.

c. Mentally, where they concern the impulses which
produce the other two.

The Treatise on Cosmic Fire
dealt primarily with the solar system and only touched upon human aspects and
correspondences insofar as they demonstrated the relation of the part to the
whole, and of the unit to the totality.

The present book will deal
more specifically with human development and unfoldment, elucidating the causes
which are responsible for the present effects, and pointing to the future and
its possibilities, and to the nature of the unfolding potentialities.

This book will be based also
upon four fundamental postulates which must be admitted by the student of the
succeeding pages as providing an hypothesis worthy of his consideration and
trial. No true investigator of the Ageless Wisdom is asked to give blind
adherence to any presentation of truth; he is asked, however, to have an open
mind and seriously to weigh and consider the theories and ideals, the laws and
the truths which have guided so many out of darkness into the light of
knowledge [8]and
experience. The postulates might be enumerated as follows and are given in the
order of their importance.

I. First, that there exists
in our manifested universe the expression of an Energy or Life which is the
responsible cause of the diverse forms and the vast hierarchy of sentient
beings who compose the sum total of all that is. This is the so-called
hylozoistic theory, though the term but serves to confuse. This great Life is
the basis of Monism, and all enlightened men are Monists. "God is One"
is the utterance of truth. One life pervades all forms and those forms are the
expressions, in time and space, of the central universal energy. Life in
manifestation produces existence and being. It is the root cause, therefore,
of duality. This duality which is seen when objectivity is present and which
disappears when the form aspect vanishes is covered by many terms, of which for
the sake of clarity, the most usual might be here listed:

Spirit

Matter

Life

Form

Father

Mother

Positive

Negative

Darkness

Light

Students must clearly have
this essential unity in mind e'en when they talk (as they needs must) in finite
terms of that duality which is everywhere, cyclically, apparent.

II. The second postulate
grows out of the first and states that the one Life, manifesting through
matter, produces a third factor which is consciousness. This consciousness,
which is the result of the union of the two poles of spirit and matter is the
soul of all things; it permeates all substance or objective energy; it
underlies all forms, whether it be the form of that unit of energy which we
call an atom, or the form of man, a planet, or a solar system. This is the Theory
of Self-determination[9]or the teaching that all the lives of which the one
life is formed, in their sphere and in their state of being, become, so to
speak, grounded in matter and assume forms whereby their peculiar specific
state of consciousness may be realised and their vibration stabilised; thus
they may know themselves as existences. Thus again the one life becomes a
stabilised and conscious entity through the medium of the solar system, and is
essentially, therefore the sum total of energies, of all states of
consciousness, and of all forms in existence. The homogeneous becomes the
heterogeneous, and yet remains a unity; the one manifests in diversity and yet
is unchanged; the central unity is known in time and space as composite and
differentiated and yet, when time and space are not (being but states of
consciousness), only the unity will remain, and only spirit will persist, plus
an increased vibratory action, plus capacity for an intensification of the
light when again the cycle of manifestation returns.

Within the vibratory
pulsation of the one manifesting Life all the lesser lives repeat the process
of being,—Gods, angels, men, and the myriad lives which express themselves
through the forms of the kingdoms of nature and the activities of the
evolutionary process. All become self-centered and self-determined.

III. The third basic
postulate is that the object for which life takes form and the purpose of
manifested being is the unfoldment of consciousness, or the revelation of the
soul. This might be called the Theory of the Evolution of Light. When
it is realised that even the modern scientist is saying that light and matter
are synonymous terms, thus echoing the teaching of the East, it becomes
apparent that through the interplay of the poles, and through the friction of
the pairs of opposites light flashes forth. The goal of evolution is found to
be a gradual series of light demonstrations. Veiled and [10]hidden
by every form lies light. As evolution proceeds, matter becomes increasingly a
better conductor of the light, thus demonstrating the accuracy of the statement
of the Christ "I am the Light of the World".

IV. The fourth postulate
consists of the statement that all lives manifest cyclically. This is the Theory
of Rebirth or of re-incarnation, the demonstration of the law of
periodicity.

Such are the great underlying
truths which form the foundation of the Ageless Wisdom—the existence of life,
and the development of consciousness through the cyclic taking of form.

In this book, however, the
emphasis will be laid upon the little life; upon man "made in the image of
God", who through the method of re-incarnation unfolds his consciousness
until it flowers forth as the perfected soul, whose nature is light and whose
realisation is that of a self-conscious identity. This developed unit has
eventually to be merged, with full intelligent participation, in the greater
consciousness of which it is a part.

Before we take up our subject
it might be of value if we defined certain words which will be in constant use,
so that we will know what we are talking about, and the significance of the
terms we use.

1. Occult. This term
concerns the hidden forces of being and those springs of conduct which produce
the objective manifestation. The word "conduct" is used here
deliberately, for all manifestation, in all the kingdoms of nature, is the expression
of the life, purpose and type of activity of some being or existence, and thus
is literally the conduct (or outer nature or quality) of a life. These springs
of action lie hid in the purpose of any life, whether it be a solar life, a
planetary entity, a man, or that Being who is the sum total of the
states of consciousness and of the forms of any kingdom in nature.

2. Laws. A law
presupposes a superior being who, [11]gifted with purpose, and
aided by intelligence, is so coordinating his forces that a plan is being
sequentially and steadily matured. Through a clear knowledge of the goal, that
entity sets in activity those steps and stages which when carried forward in
order will bring the plan to perfection. The word "law", as usually
understood, conveys the idea of subjection to an activity which is recognised
as inexorable and undeviating, but which is not understood by the one who is
subjected to it; it involves, from one standpoint, the attitude of the
submersed unit in the group impulse and the inability of that unit to change
the impulse or evade the issue; it inevitably brings about in the consciousness
of the man who is considering these laws, a feeling of being a victim—of being
driven forward like a leaf before the breeze towards an end about which
speculation only is possible, and of being governed by a force which acts
apparently with an unavoidable pressure and thus produces group results, at the
expense of the unit. This attitude of mind is inevitable until the
consciousness of man can be so expanded that he becomes aware of the greater
issues. When, through contact with his own higher self, he participates in the
knowledge of the objective, and when through climbing the mountain of vision
his perspective changes and his horizon enlarges, he comes to the realisation
that a law is but the spiritual impulse, incentive and life manifestation of
that Being in which he lives and moves. He learns that that impulse
demonstrates an intelligent purpose, wisely directed, and based on love. He
then himself begins to wield the law or to pass wisely, lovingly and
intelligently through himself as much of that spiritual life impulse which his
particular organism can respond to, transmit and utilise. He ceases to
obstruct and begins to transfer. He brings to an end the cycle of the closed
self-centered life, and opens the doors wide to spiritual energy. In so doing
he finds that the law [12]which he has hated and mistrusted is the vitalising,
purifying agency which is sweeping him and all God's creatures on to a glorious
consummation.

3. Psychic. There are
two types of the above force in manifestation as far as the human kingdom is
concerned, and these must be clearly grasped. There is the force which
animates the subhuman kingdoms in nature,—the ensouling energy which, brought
into conjunction with the energy of matter and self, produces all forms. The
effect of this junction is to add to the embryo intelligence of substance
itself a latent sentiency and responsiveness that produces that subjective
something we call the animal soul. This exists in four degrees or states of
sentient awareness:

a. The consciousness of the mineral kingdom.

b. The consciousness of the vegetable kingdom.

c. The consciousness of the animal kingdom.

d. The consciousness of the animal form through which
the spiritual man functions, which after all is but a department of the former
group in its highest presentation.

Secondly, there is that
psychic force which is the result of the union of the spirit with sentient
matter in the human kingdom and which produces a psychic centre which we call
the soul of man. This psychic centre is a force centre, and the force of which
it is the custodian or which it demonstrates, brings into play a responsiveness
and an awareness which is that of the soul of the planetary life, a group
consciousness which brings with it faculties and knowledge of a different order
than that in the animal soul. These supersede eventually the powers of the
animal soul which limit, distort, and imprison, and give man a range of
contacts and a knowledge which is infallible, free from error, and which admits
him to "the freedom of the heavens". The effect of the free [13]play
of the soul of man serves to demonstrate the fallibility and relative
uselessness of the powers of the animal soul. All I desire to do here is to
show the two senses in which the word "psychic" is used. Later we
will deal with the growth and development of the lower psychic nature or the
soul of the vehicles in which man functions in the three worlds, and then will
seek to elucidate the true nature of the soul of man and of the powers which
can be brought into play once a man can contact his own spiritual centre, the
soul, and live in that soul consciousness.

4. Unfoldment. The
life at the heart of the solar system is producing an evolutionary unfoldment
of the energies of that universe which it is not possible for finite man as yet
to vision. Similarly the centre of energy which we call the spiritual aspect
in man is (through the utilisation of matter or substance) producing an evolutionary
development of that which we call the soul, and which is the highest of the form
manifestations—the human kingdom. Man is the highest product of existence in
the three worlds. By man, I mean the spiritual man, a son of God in
incarnation. The forms of all the kingdoms of nature—human, animal, vegetable
and mineral—contribute to that manifestation. The energy of the third aspect
of divinity tends to the revelation of the soul or the second aspect which in
turn reveals the highest aspect. It must ever be remembered that The Secret
Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky expresses this with accuracy in the words
"Life we look upon as the one form of existence, manifesting in what is
called Matter; or what, incorrectly separating them, we name spirit, soul and
matter in man. Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this
plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the
manifestation of spirit, and these three are a trinity synthesized by life, [14]which
pervades them all." (The Secret Doctrine. Vol: I. p. 79. 80.)

Through the use of matter the
soul unfolds and finds its climax in the soul of man, and this treatise will
concern itself with the unfoldment of that soul and its discovery by man.

5. Knowledge might be
divided into three categories:—First, there is theoretical knowledge.
This includes all knowledge of which man is aware but which is accepted by him
on the statements of other people, and by the specialists in the various
branches of knowledge. It is founded on authoritative statements and has in it
the element of trust in the writers and speakers, and in the trained
intelligences of the workers in any of the many and varied fields of thought.
The truths accepted as such have not been formulated or verified by the one who
accepts them, lacking as he does the necessary training and equipment. The
dicta of science, the theologies of religion, and the findings of the
philosophers and thinkers everywhere colour the point of view and meet with a
ready acquiescence from the untrained mind, and that is the average mind.

Then, secondly, we have discriminative
knowledge, which has in it a selective quality and which posits the
intelligent appreciation and practical application of the more specifically
scientific method, and the utilisation of test, the elimination of that which
cannot be proved, and the isolation of those factors which will bear
investigation and are in conformity with what is understood as law. The
rational, argumentative, scholastic, and concretising mind is brought into play
with the result that much that is childish, impossible and unverifiable is
rejected and a consequent clarifying of the fields of thought results. This
discriminating and scientific process has enabled man to arrive at much truth
in relation to the three worlds. The scientific method is, in relation to the [15]mind
of humanity, playing the same function as the occult method of meditation (in
its first two stages of concentration and prolonged concentration or meditation)
plays in relation to the individual. Through it right processes of thought are
engendered, non-essentials and incorrect formulations of truth are ultimately
eliminated or corrected, and the steady focussing of the attention either upon
a seed thought, a scientific problem, a philosophy or a world situation results
in an ultimate clarifying and the steady seeping in of right ideas and sound
conclusions. The foremost thinkers in any of the great schools of thought are
simply exponents of occult meditation and the brilliant discoveries of science,
the correct interpretations of nature's laws, and the formulations of correct
conclusions whether in the fields of science, of economics, of philosophy,
psychology or elsewhere is but the registering by the mind (and subsequently by
the brain) of the eternal verities, and the indication that the race is
beginning also to bridge the gap between the objective and the subjective,
between the world of form and the world of ideas.

This leads inevitably to the
emergence of the third branch of knowledge, the intuitive. The
intuition is in reality only the appreciation by the mind of some factor in
creation, some law of manifestation and some aspect of truth, known by the
soul, emanating from the world of ideas, and being of the nature of those
energies which produce all that is known and seen. These truths are always
present, and these laws are ever active, but only as the mind is trained and
developed, focussed, and open-minded can they be recognized, later understood,
and finally adjusted to the needs and demands of the cycle and time. Those who
have thus trained the mind in the art of clear thinking, the focussing of the
attention, and consequent receptivity to truth have always been with us, but
hitherto have been few and far between. They [16]are the outstanding minds
of the ages. But now they are many and increasingly found. The minds of the
race are in process of training and many are hovering on the borders of a new
knowledge. The intuition which guides all advanced thinkers into the newer
fields of learning is but the forerunner of that omniscience which
characterises the soul. The truth about all things exists, and we call it
omniscience, infallibility, the "correct knowledge" of the Hindu
philosophy. When man grasps a fragment of it and absorbs it into the racial
consciousness we call it the formulation of a law, a discovery of one or other
of nature's processes. Hitherto this has been a slow and piecemeal
undertaking. Later, and before so very long, light will pour in, truth will be
revealed and the race will enter upon its heritage—the heritage of the soul.

In some of our
considerations, speculation must perforce enter in. Those who see a vision
that is withheld from those lacking the necessary equipment for its
apprehension are regarded as fanciful, and unreliable. When many see the
vision, its possibility is admitted, but when humanity itself has the awakened
and open eye, the vision is no longer emphasised but a fact is stated and a law
enunciated. Such has been the history of the past and such will be the process
in the future.

The past is purely
speculative from the standpoint of the average man and the future is equally
so, but he himself is the result of that past and the future will work out of
the sum total of his present characteristics and qualities. If this is true of
the individual it is then also equally true of mankind as a whole. That unit
in nature, which we call the fourth or human kingdom, represents that which is
the product of its physical heritage; its characteristics are the sum of its
emotional and mental unfoldments and its assets are those which it has
succeeded in accumulating during the cycles wherein it has [17]been
wrestling with its environment—the sum total of the other kingdoms in nature.
Within the human kingdom lie potentialities and latencies, characteristics and
assets which the future will reveal and which in their turn determine that
future.

I have purposely chosen to
begin with the undefinable and the unrecognised. The soul is as yet an unknown
quantity. It has no real place in the theories of the academic and scientific
investigators. It is unproven and regarded by even the more open-minded of the
academicians as a possible hypothesis, but lacking demonstration. It is not
accepted as a fact in the consciousness of the race. Only two groups of people
accept it as a fact; one is the gullible, undeveloped, childlike person who,
brought up on a scripture of the world, and being religiously inclined, accepts
the postulates of religion—such as the soul, God and immortality—without
questioning. The other is that small but steadily growing band of Knowers of
God, and of reality, who know the soul to be a fact in their own experience but
are unable to prove its existence satisfactorily to the man who admits only
that which the concrete mind can grasp, analyse, criticise and test.

The ignorant and the wise
meet on common ground as extremes always do. In between are those who are
neither totally ignorant nor intuitively wise. They are the mass of the
educated people who have knowledge but not understanding, and who have yet to
learn the distinction between that which can be grasped by the rational mind,
that which can be seen by the mind's eye, and that which only the higher or
abstract mind can formulate and know. This ultimately merges in the intuition,
which is the "knowing faculty" of the intelligent and practical
mystic who—relegating the emotional and feeling nature to its own place—uses
the mind as a focussing [18]point and looks out through that lens upon the world
of the soul.